Today the Detroit Tigers traded Pitcher Nate Robertson to the Florida Marlins for a prospect. Maybe trade is not the right word. They bought Robertson out, don’t believe me, well the Tigers will pick up 9.6 million of Nate’s 10 million dollar salary in 2010. They essentially paid, the Marlins to take Nate off their roster. In essence they paid nearly 10 million bucks to create a roster spot for Jeremy Bonderman and the wacky Dontrelle Willis.
While the logic of getting rid of Nate is sound, he was due a big contract and the Tigers have been trimming payroll for this entire off season. The problem is Bonderman and Willis are also due big money in 2010, but it seems likely that no other team wanted them. The problem as I see it is Robertson gave the Tigers a decent start, every fifth day which is more then we can say about the two pitchers they kept who will eat up over 20 million dollars of Tigers payroll.
So far this off-season the Tigers have gotten rid of their, All Star Center fielder, Gold Glove winning second baseman, All Star starting pitcher, a quality closer, and now a back of the rotation starter. They have replaced these players with two rookies, a starting pitcher who has control issues and a possible mental illness, a pitcher coming back from major surgery, and broken down outfielder Johnny Damon.
I have no idea how Tigers’ General Manger Dave Dombrowski still has his job. This is not how one builds a winning team, especially one with over 100 million dollars invested in the payroll. This is a joke, a helter skelter plan meant to fool ignorant Tigers fans that the team is still trying to win.
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